The Act of Killing: Are you still watching series

The Act of Killing (2012), directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, explores the mass killings that took place in Indonesia between 1965 and 1966, when the army and paramilitary groups carried out a campaign of violence against alleged communists and leftists. At the centre of the documentary are some of the men responsible for these killings, who were never brought to justice and continue to live with a sense of pride in their past. Many of these men came from a background in the black-market cinema trade, selling tickets for American films with actors such as James Dean and John Wayne. Fascinated by the gangsters and outlaws they saw on screen, they developed their own ideas of power, masculinity and violence. Oppenheimer explores this connection by inviting these men to reenact their crimes in the cinematic genres they admire.

Their memories become elaborate performances in which horrific acts of violence are transformed into scenes of entertainment and spectacle. What happens when those responsible for mass murder are given the opportunity to direct their own stories? Through these reenactments, this film reveals how cinema can become a way of obscuring the reality of violence. As the performances unfold, the line between acting and remembering begins to blur, exposing contradictions that the perpetrators themselves may not fully recognise. In The Act of Killing, the act of watching becomes unsettling in a different way. We are not only confronted with the perpetrators’ representations of their own crimes, but also with our own position as spectators. What does it mean to watch violence when it is staged for our entertainment? And when the perpetrators themselves turn their crimes into a spectacle, where do we stand as viewers? Are we witnessing an attempt to confront the past, or are we becoming part of the very spectacle through which violence is normalised?